New Studies Confirm: Your Relatives Were Way Attracted to Neanderthals

January 30, 2014 8:22 PM

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The New York Times reports that two new studies regarding our genetic relationship to Neanderthals have reached similar conclusions: Between 85,000 and 37,000 years ago, after groups of modern humans had migrated out of Africa, they mated with Neanderthals. Neanderthals, extinct for 30,000 years, are the closest relatives to humans, sharing a common progenitor from 600,000 years ago.

Where do we see this evidence of Neanderthal-human lovin'? Researchers say that Neanderthal DNA related to hair and skin is particularly present in certain modern humans' DNA. In a paper published in Nature, researchers from Harvard Medical School and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthro...